It is well known in the art of fastening devices to use hook-and-loop type fasteners, commonly referred to as Velcro.RTM., for temporarily securing two objects together. Hook-and-loop type fasteners include two cooperating portions--a hook portion defining a plurality of hooks and a loop portion which defines a nap in which the hooks are engaged. The particular configuration of the hooks is selected to accomplish various strengths of engagement. To this extent, it is well-known to manufacture hook-and-loop type fasteners to accomplish various strengths of bonds.
It is also well known to configure hook-and-loop type fasteners to be secured to selected components to be held in close proximity in various different manners. It is common, for example, to provide a hook-and-loop type fastener having no particular securing mechanism such that each cooperating portion thereof may be sewn to two pieces of fabric to be held together when the cooperating portions of the hook-and-loop type fastener are mated. However, sewing the a hook-and-loop type fastener to a piece of material can be time-consuming and difficult, especially when large quantities of the fastener are required.
Another conventional manner of securing the cooperating portions of a hook-and-loop type fastener to selected object is with an adhesive coating applied to the back of each cooperating portion. Typical adhesives employed in this manner are sufficient for application on a rigid surface such as wood or metal. However, application of an adhesive-backed hook-and-loop type fastener has proven impractical for use on fabrics such as in clothing or other applications where the fastener must also be pliable and where the article to which it is attached is washed and dried in conventional manners. In such applications, while the adhesive may be effective initially, sufficient wicking into the material does not take place in order to maintain a bond.
Yet another conventional manner of securing a hook-and-loop type fastener to an article is by providing a heat-sensitive material to the back of each cooperating portion in order to iron each portion to the selected articles. However, it has also been shown that the products currently available do not perform their desired functions sufficiently. Another deficiency in coating the back of a cooperating portion of the fastener with a heat-sensitive adhesive is the degradation of the hook surface and the loop surface when the fastener portion is secured to the selected article. Specifically, when mounting the particular fastener portion, heat must be applied through the top side thereof in order to activate the adhesive. Direct application of heat, especially to the hooks, may destroy the particular fastener portion due to the characteristics of the material of manufacture. On the contrary insufficient heat will not activate the adhesive.
One apparent reason for the failures of conventional hook-and-loop type fasteners is that in order to achieve an effective engagement between the hook and loop portions of the fastener, the substrate on which the hooks and loops are formed is an acrylic based material. This type of material does not allow for effective wicking of an adhesive--whether pressure-sensitive or heat-sensitive--therein, thus yielding a separation of the fastener portion from the adhesive. Accordingly, the most effective manner of fastening a hook-and-loop type fastener to a fabric has been, to date, sewing.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a means for effectively securing at least one portion of a hook-and-loop type fastener to a selected material using a heat-sensitive adhesive.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a means whereby the hook-and-loop type fastener may be iron onto a flexible material with a resulting bond sufficient to withstand repeated flexion of the material, as well as subjection to convention washing and drying methods.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide such a hook-and-loop type fastener whereby securement of the fastener using a conventional heat treatment application such as ironing does not destroy the engagement portions of the fastener itself.